Infographic: Keeping Wasteful Defense Spending vs. Helping Vets

Funding for Unnecessary Weapons Could Be Used for Training and Employment Services

SOURCE: AP/ Erich Schlegel

With troops returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq, it is crucial that Congress puts a priority on ensuring those returning can find jobs, training, and housing over maintaining an unprecedented level of baseline defense spending.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans are coming home as our nation winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But too many of them are returning to poverty, homelessness, and levels of unemployment higher than that of the civilian population.

Yet programs that serve veterans are at risk as Congress considers strategies to cut our nation’s deficits. Under the debt ceiling deal reached last August, programs such as veteran training and employment services and housing for homeless vets will be automatically cut by 9.1 percent in January 2013 unless Congress acts. What’s more, many of our investments that spur job creation and ensure that struggling families can meet basic needs will take an equal hit, affecting veterans and nonveterans alike.

At the same time many in Congress are insisting we protect spending on defense programs that do nothing to enhance our national security—even if it means deeper cuts to veterans services and policies that strengthen the middle class. Are they really willing to keep funding for yet another nuclear missile—particularly given our existing arsenal’s tremendous size—when the same funding would prevent a big cut to job training for veterans?

The United States faces critical choices and trade-offs as it wrangles over the right way to cut its long-term deficits. We outline the budget trade-offs below between keeping funding for defense programs we don’t need or programs that help veterans and our middle class. [1]

[1] Overall methodology for the veterans programs was to multiply the enacted fiscal year 2012 level (discounting any recovery or emergency spending) by 0.091 for an estimated sequester amount. The number on the fourth row is taken from Richard Kogan, “How Across-the-Board Cuts in the Budget Control Act Will Work” (Washington: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2011), available at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3635